One family, three generations of volunteer soldiers

(Baonghean)On one occasion when I was working in Laos, when visiting the memorial site of Uncle Kaysone Phomvihane, we went with a mother with white hair, wearing the Military Exploit, War Exploit, and Glorious Soldier medals awarded by the Vietnamese State. The comrade in charge of this relic site, a Vietnamese, introduced her as Mrs. Xama-nga, whose Vietnamese name is Phung Thanh Tam. In Laos, not only do many of your current high-ranking officials cherish her like a mother, but when they were alive, leaders such as Uncle Kaysone Phomvihane, Suphanu-vong, Phu-mi... all paid great attention to taking care of her in her old age...

Mrs. Tam is over 80 years old, weak, and cannot remember much, but through the stories of many overseas Vietnamese, volunteer cadres who worked in Laos during the resistance war, and through documents... we know that this is a Phung family in Vietnam with three generations of volunteer soldiers.

Going back in time, when the countries on the Indochina peninsula were still slaves of the "motherland" France, Mrs. Tam's grandparents were from Quang Trach, Quang Binh; a patriotic family that was oppressed and persecuted, forced to take their children to Laos to make a living and followed their ancestors, Mr. Tu Huong, Dang Nguyen Can, Dang Thuc Hua, Dang Thai Tan (aka Ty, son of Mr. Dang Thai Than), Vo Tong (Lu The Hanh), Dang Van Cap... to work in the patriotic overseas Vietnamese movement. Since she was young, Mrs. Tam followed her parents from Laos to live with the Vietnamese people in the regions of Udon, Nong On, Sa Con... in Siam. In these regions, from the end of 1928-1929, Mr. Thau Chin - Mr. Tho Son - Nam... (aka Uncle Ho) left their footprints of activities along the Mekong River. Therefore, overseas Vietnamese regions have branches of the Vietnam Revolutionary Youth Association led by the association, with Vietnamese and Siamese language schools for overseas Vietnamese children, and the patriotic and revolutionary movement among overseas Vietnamese has developed very strongly.

At that time, Mrs. Tam met Mr. Tho - Thau Chin many times and was given the Vietnamese name Lien and the Siamese name Xi-vi-lay by him, and was sent to work as a liaison. She was young but was soon nurtured with patriotism and revolutionary enlightenment from her grandfather and father, from the "Association of Vietnamese Overseas Vietnamese Friendship" movement... She participated in activities for many years before the August Revolution, then became a cadre assigned to return with her husband to work hard to build bases and overseas Vietnamese guerrilla teams in remote areas of Xieng Khouang province, Central Laos.

Mr. and Mrs. Phung Dai Loi, who previously worked in Laos, gave birth to her in Vientiane. They named their child Tam, also expressing their wish that no matter where they lived, they would always turn to their homeland and homeland, keeping their "heart" intact! But it was her beloved father who was worthy of the name Dai Loi of the famous Phung family line of patriotism and revolution in Quang Binh; leaving behind the word "heart" as a shining example for his descendants. He was a volunteer soldier who returned to fight and heroically sacrificed himself in the early days of fighting against the French colonialists who returned to invade the three Indochinese countries, in the Ba Na Phau area of ​​the Route 12 front in Central Laos, bordering his hometown Quang Binh province. At that time, the joint Vietnamese - Lao armed forces had about 600 gunmen, led by Mr. Souphanouvong after meeting Uncle Ho, guided and accompanied by Vietnamese soldiers, returned to become the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Commander-in-Chief of the Lao armed forces, directly commanding the joint Vietnamese - Lao forces at the famous Thakhet-Savannakhet front. Among the armed forces of the two countries fighting side by side, her husband was a soldier in the volunteer army who heroically sacrificed like his father for the independence of the two newly won countries. Also on the Central Laos front, at that time, Mr. Le Thieu Huy, the son of Professor Le Thuoc, in the special team sent to help Souphanouvong, also sacrificed on the Mekong River...

The resistance war against the common enemy of the two Vietnamese and Lao peoples became increasingly fierce, in early 1946 the Lao-Vietnamese armed forces had to move to Thailand, along the Mekong River. Mrs. Tam, like her father and husband, was a volunteer soldier in the Lao-Vietnamese coalition, having been attached to units such as the 13th Regiment of Ha Tinh province, the border agency of Inter-zone 4, then the 81st Group of the Upper Laos front operating in the Xieng Khouang area, alongside groups 80, 82, 83... commanded by Mr. Hoang Huu Binh from the end of 1945, the agency was based at the house of Mrs. Lang, the sister of Uncle Phan Trong Tue... After the new policy was adopted, she withdrew to Thailand for consolidation, she was a soldier in the volunteer army to stay close to the land and people, struggling to implement weapons, propaganda to build revolutionary bases and armed forces widely in the years 1947-1948. At that time, comrade Kaysone Phomvihane was the leader of the Lao Bac propaganda team, and comrade Thao Hanh, a Vietnamese expatriate, was the deputy leader (who later died), working hard in the Upper Laos and Northwest regions of Vietnam. After that, she returned to work as a "nanny" and teacher for the children of Lao cadres in the Northwest war zone, teaching both Lao and Vietnamese...

The resistance war between the two peoples of Vietnam and Laos was increasingly successful. During the Upper Laos campaign in 1953-1954, she was a Vietnamese expatriate, fluent in the Mong language, customs, and locality, so she served in Vietnamese volunteer units such as the 66th Regiment of the 304th Division, then the 316th Division to help her friends in reconnaissance, base building, peacekeeping, and enemy mobilization. At that time, the 316th Division, commanded by Vu Lap, commanded the volunteer troops to liberate Phong-sa-ly, the Muong Et and Ca Nua regions. After the victory at Dien Bien Phu, she regrouped in the newly established 335th Border Guard Corps, replacing the 316th Division that had gone to help her friends. Then she served in cultural training schools for the children of Lao cadres for nearly another decade. Therefore, many of your senior officials were once your "adopted children", your students still call you mother, and take great care of your "adopted mother" when she is old. She has been awarded many noble medals and orders by the Party and State of the Lao PDR. When he was alive, Uncle Cay-son often advised the officials to pay attention to taking care of her health in her old age...

Many of the children of Lao cadres who were taken care of by her at that time, have now grown up to be high-ranking leaders... so she is very fond of her, and on the other hand, her three sons were also three volunteer soldiers like their mother, who fought bravely and sacrificed on the western front of Vientiane, Savannakhet, and western Quang Binh for the independence of both nations. Ms. Ly is her daughter, also a volunteer soldier, later became a military doctor, and is now retired. Due to her old age and poor health, Ms. Tam returned to live with her daughter, her husband, and her grandchildren in Vientiane.

Tran Thi Hoat (Contributor)